A statue of St. Paul’s gold-medal-winning gymnast Suni Lee has been stolen and police asked for the public’s help Thursday to find it.

A bust of U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee. (Courtesy of St. Paul Parks and Recreation)

It was installed at Phalen Lakeside Activity Center in St. Paul in 2023, after she made history with her win at the 2020 Olympic Games.

“The brass statue, along with the rock with her nameplate on it, were taken within the last day,” police wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “We are actively working to find the statute.”

It would have been difficult to steal and likely required tools, said Alyssa Arcand, a St. Paul police spokeswoman.

“Apparently it had two steel rods connecting it, so it would have taken awhile to get it out,” she said.

Police are asking anyone with information to email SPPD-eastinvestigations@stpaul.gov.

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By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The agency responsible for carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda says it has already made tentative job offers to more than 1,000 people as it ramps up hiring following the passage of legislation earlier this month giving the agency a massive infusion of cash.

The agency’s spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement Thursday that the offers had been made after July 4. That’s when Trump signed into law a broad package of tax breaks and spending cuts that also included about $170 billion for border security and immigration enforcement, spread out over five years.

“ICE has already issued over 1,000 tentative job offers since July 4. Many of these offers were to ICE officers who retired under President Biden because they were frustrated that they were not allowed to do their jobs,” she said. “Now under President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is excited to get back to work to remove rapists, murderers, gang members and pedophiles from our communities.”

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The budget is multiplying exponentially

ICE is the key agency responsible for executing Trump’s campaign promise of carrying out the largest deportation operation in history. The administration has been ramping up immigration-related arrests across the country. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, has said ICE officers would have a target of at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term.

That heightened enforcement has played out with arrests in immigration courts, worksites, neighborhoods and more.

ICE is set to get $76.5 billion, nearly 10 times its current annual budget. Some $45 billion will go toward increasing detention capacity. Nearly $30 billion is for hiring 10,000 more staff so the agency can meet its goal of 1 million annual deportations. The White House has said ICE will grow from 20,000 employees to about 30,000.

Earlier this week, ICE announced a recruiting campaign aimed at finding and hiring the deportation officers, investigators and lawyers it will need to meet that goal of 10,000 new staff. As part of that campaign the agency is offering an eye-catching bonus of up to $50,000 for new recruits as well as other benefits like student loan forgiveness and abundant overtime for deportation officers.

At a time when the federal government has been firing federal employees left and right, the USAJOBS website where vacancies for federal jobs are posted has dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement jobs.

Some are for the deportation officers responsible for finding and removing people from the country; investigators with Homeland Security Investigations, which helps investigate transnational crime, including immigration issues; and lawyers who represent the government in prosecuting immigration cases.

Jobs to support the detention network are also in play

But there are also other jobs that support the detention network that is being supercharged to carry out mass deportations: nurses and nurse managers, psychiatric care providers, auditors, field medical coordinators and more.

The anticipated hiring boom has also raised concerns about whether standards will be lowered in order to meet the growing demand. The Border Patrol underwent its own expansion during the early 2000s — something that is often cited as a cautionary tale for the risks of quick hiring. To meet hiring goals, training and hiring standards were changed. Arrests for employee misconduct rose.

McLaughlin rejected suggestions that the agency would lower recruitment standards.

“All new recruits must meet the same standards they always have. I know this may be shocking to the media, but many Americans want to serve their country and help remove the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our country,” she said.

By JAIMIE DING and DAVID KLEPPER, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Pentagon said Thursday it is ending the deployment of all but 250 National Guard troops that were originally sent to Los Angeles to deal with protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered 1,350 National Guard members to leave this week. The rest will remain to protect federal personnel and property, according to the statement attributed to Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson.

Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines were deployed to Los Angeles in early June over the objections of state and local officials. Half of the Guard were pulled back roughly two weeks ago, and the Marines were ordered to leave a few days later.

“We greatly appreciate the support of the more than 5,000 Guardsmen and Marines who mobilized to Los Angeles to defend Federal functions against the rampant lawlessness occurring in the city,” Parnell said.

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Local leaders have contested the presence of federal troops in the city, blaming them for inflaming tensions in the region and said their presence was unnecessary. Mayor Karen Bass called the departure of more troops “another win for Los Angeles” in a post Wednesday night on X.

The presence of Guard troops in the city had been mostly limited to two locations with federal buildings in Los Angeles, including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and detention facility downtown. Some soldiers have been protecting federal agents during immigration raids.

National Guard troops recently accompanied federal authorities with guns and horses at a July 7 operation at MacArthur Park, a neighborhood with large Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations, that ended abruptly.

A vast majority of the troops remained at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos during their time in Southern California and were not seen deployed in Los Angeles. Demonstrations in the city and the region in recent weeks have largely been small, scattered impromptu protests around immigration arrests.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that President Donald Trump’s “political theater backfired.”

“The women and men of our military deserve more than to be used as props in the federal government’s propaganda machine,” Newsom said.

Newsom sued the federal government in June over the deployment of the National Guard, arguing that Trump violated the law when he activated the troops without notifying him. Newsom also asked the judge for an emergency stop to troops helping carry out immigration raids.

While a lower court ordered Trump to return control of the Guard to California, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the judge’s order.

Klepper reported from Washington, D.C.

By LIUDAS DAPKUS

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas stepped down Thursday, following investigations into his business dealings that prompted protests calling for his resignation.

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Paluckas, a newly established leader of the center-left Social Democrats, ascended to the role late last year after a three-party coalition formed following a parliamentary election in October in Lithuania. His entire Cabinet is also expected to resign, potentially leaving the Baltic country without an effective government weeks before Russia holds joint military exercises with neighboring Belarus.

“Seeing how the scandals are hindering the work of the government, I believe that I cannot allow our ruling coalition and the Cabinet to become hostages to these scandals,” Paluckas wrote in a letter to Social Democratic party members. “Therefore, I have decided to take a quick and decisive decision.

“I never cling to any position in life — and so I am open to all scenarios and decisions.”

President Gitanas Nausėda announced Paluckas’ resignation to the media on Thursday morning.

Lithuanian foreign policy is unlikely to change as a result of the government shake-up. Nausėda, who was elected separately, is the country’s face on the world stage and has been one of the most stalwart supporters of Ukraine’s fight against invading Russian forces.

Paluckas has recently been dogged by media investigations into his business and financial dealings. Several media outlets published investigations in July regarding Paluckas’ past and present ventures and alleged mishandlings, including ones more than a decade ago. Anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies in the country subsequently launched their own inquiries.

In a devastating blow to his reputation, the media also revealed that Paluckas never paid a significant part of a 16,500-euro (around $19,000) fine in connection with a 2012 criminal case dubbed the “rat poison scandal.”

Paluckas was convicted of mishandling the bidding process for Vilnius’ rat extermination services while serving as the capital city’s municipality administration director. In 2012, judges at Lithuania’s top court ruled that he abused his official position by illegally granting privileges to the company that offered the highest price in the bid.

He was also sentenced to two years behind bars, but the sentence was suspended for one year and he ultimately was never imprisoned.

The Social Democratic party leader denied any wrongdoing regarding his business affairs, labeling the criticism as part of a “coordinated attack” by political opponents.

He resigned before the opposition could formally launch impeachment proceedings. New coalition talks are expected to start shortly to form a new Cabinet.